The Duff Cooper Diaries: 1915-1951

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Flanders, Judith (1 June 2018). "John Julius Norwich obituary: writer and broadcaster keen to share his many passions". The Guardian . Retrieved 19 June 2018. Cooper resigned in disgust at the Munich agreement, and shortly afterwards John Julius was evacuated to the US for the duration of the war. Not for him the tragic plight of the small child wearing a luggage label. He went with his nanny, and spent the first part of the war living with William Paley, the multi-millionaire chairman of CBS television, at his family estate in Long Island. He was sent to a private boys’ school, Upper Canada college in Toronto, before returning to Britain and Eton college. The Times editorial, the 'Sea Grip', a peon to British maritime prowess, was followed by 'Anabasis - the Sea', which drew a parallel between Gort and the BEF, and Xenophon and the escape of the 10,000. Other papers with less literary leanings gave the public the news with screaming headlines - 'Saved' - 'Disaster Turned To Triumph' - 'Rescued From The Jaws Of Death'.

Within weeks Cooper was selected for the winnable seat of Oldham, where he was elected at the general election in October 1924, with a 13,000 majority over the sitting Labour member. [11] He made a very successful maiden speech on Egypt, which was praised by H. A. L. Fisher who spoke next. The speech was also praised by several newspaper accounts. He was seen as a coming man within the party. [12] Cooper was a stalwart supporter of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, and a friend of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill. [13] In January 1928 he was appointed Financial Secretary to the War Office, not a job he would have chosen. The Secretary of State Sir Laming Worthington-Evans gave him a lot of responsibility. He very likely would have been promoted if the Conservatives had won the election in 1929, but they were defeated and Cooper lost his own seat. [5] The Times". 9 January 1954: 8. {{ cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= ( help): 'A statement issued on behalf of the Dowager Viscountess Norwich announces that she has reverted to the name and title of Lady Diana Cooper'. Bell, P. M. H. (2014). France and Britain, 1940–1994: The Long Separation. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-05-82289-21-5.Schillinger, Liesl (11 November 2012). "Susan Mary Alsop: A Two-Continent Hostess". The New York Times . Retrieved 1 September 2018. Duff Cooper was a first-rate witness of just about every significant event from 1914 to 1950. His diary includes some magnificent set pieces – as a young soldier at the end of WWI, as a politician during the General Strike of 1926, as King Edward VIII’s friend at the time of the Abdication, and from Paris after the liberation in 1944, when he became British ambassador.

In January 1928 he was appointed Financial Secretary to the War Office, but in the General Election of the Spring of 1929 he lost his seat and the Conservatives lost power. In March 1931 Duff Cooper was again elected to the Commons after a by-election in the St George's Division of Westminster. He was subsequently appointed as Under-Secretary at the War Office and, in June 1934, as Financial Secretary to the Treasury. After the General Election of November 1935 Cooper entered the Cabinet as Secretary of State for War and was sworn into the Privy Council. She married one of the only survivors, Duff Cooper, later Ambassador to France. After his death, she wrote three volumes of memoirs which reveal much about 20th-century upper-class life. She worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse at Guy's Hospital during the war, and later at a hospital for officers her mother set up in London (though she annoyed her co-workers with her inconsistent attendance, and tendency to take off with friends). She also worked briefly as editor of the magazine Femina, and she wrote a column in the Beaverbrook newspapers before turning to acting. Her work as a nurse increased her popularity and public notoriety. Her name appears in the wartime version of the music hall song " Burlington Bertie": "I'll eat a banana/with Lady Diana/Aristocracy working at Guy's". [7] Cooper was married to Lady Diana from 1919 to his death and their only child was John Julius Norwich (1929–2018), who became well known as a writer and television presenter. [42] Cooper's granddaughter Artemis has published several books, including A Durable Fire: The Letters of Duff and Diana Cooper, 1913–50. [43]The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, supported by Pol Roger and run by the Duff Cooper Memorial Fund, a charity based at New College, Oxford, was first awarded in 1956, and has been given annually ever since. The judges this year were Artemis Cooper, Miles Young, warden of New College, Oxford, Mark Amory, Susan Brigden and David Horspool.

Lady Diana sharply reduced her activities in the late 1950s but did produce three volumes of memoirs: The Rainbow Comes and Goes, The Light of Common Day, and Trumpets from the Steep. a b Saxon, Wolfgang (18 June 1986). "Lady Diana Cooper is Dead; A Beloved British Eccentric". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 1 June 2021.

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Seventy-five years ago today, on 13 September 1944, a Dakota aircraft, with an escort of 45 Spitfires, flew across the English Channel towards Paris. The plane carried the new British Ambassador to France, Alfred ‘Duff’ Cooper. The liberation of Paris from German occupation in August 1944 meant a chance to reopen the British Embassy which had been closed since June 1940. With the provisional government of General Charles de Gaulle now in the French capital, it was a priority for the British to re-establish a presence in the city. The new Ambassador The Germans had not touched the British Embassy, which had been bought for the nation by the Duke of Wellington in 1815 from Napoleon’s favourite sister, Pauline Borghese. Duff was astonished to hear that this graceful eighteenth-century house, although big enough to contain a ball room, contained no library.